Page 5 of Promised in Blood

She smiles sweetly. “None taken. I’d kinda like to know myself.”

Alexandros clears his throat. “This university is full of magical beings, but Ophelia is not like any one of them. I should have known that showing her the pain of her species would unlock her powers, but…” He draws a deep breath, the vein in his temple throbbing. We all wait for him to finish speaking while he rubs the spot between his brows. “Perhaps I was careless.”

Malachi edges forward, hands clasped between his spread thighs. “But her powers were always meant to be unlocked, right? Isn’t that why she has them? To use them?”

“Why were Ophelia’s powers bound? And by whom?” Alexandros sighs. “There are too many unanswered questions. But I am sure of one thing.” Pausing, he looks at each of us, his dark eyes full of worry, then continues in a grave tone. “This was inevitable. And now we all must prepare for what this will mean.”

Ophelia shifts on Xavier’s lap, waves of anxiety rolling off her now. I reach over Malachi and rest my hand on her thigh. “Whatever it means, we’ve all got you, princess.”

“But whatdoesit mean, Alexandros?” Xavier asks. “Surely Ophelia getting her powers is a good thing for all of us.”

He tips his face to the ceiling and mutters something in Greek that I don’t understand. When he looks at us again, his expression is back to its normal unreadable state. “I cannot lie and tell you that the existence of an elementai is not a good thing for our species. Our fates are irrevocably and eternally bound together, and that is both a blessing and a curse.”

I squeeze her thigh reassuringly. I can’t even begin to imagine how disconcerting this must be for her. It confuses the fuck out of me, and I’ve spent over two hundred years surrounded by magic. Yet I still don’t understand the elementai and their powers.

What I do know—and what I allow to comfort me now—is that the universe bringing Ophelia to me, to all of us, will only ever be a blessing.

Chapter

Three

ALEXANDROS

Xavier rests his chin on Ophelia’s shoulder, his blue eyes glued to my face as he listens, enraptured. It is unlike him to be so curious, and this side of him intrigues me. “So the fates of elementai and vampires are bound. But how?” he asks.

I run my fingers through my beard and suppress a heavy sigh. I never intended to reveal this part of myself to them, having foolishly convinced myself that my past had no place in my future—and, until now at least, it had been irrelevant. Still, this is not a conversation I am prepared for tonight. But whenOphelia catches my eye and smiles, I am reminded how much all our lives are about to change. My boys need to know everything. The whole story. Everything except Lucian. I lack the strength necessary to answer the inevitable questions that will arise concerning him.

I blow out a breath. “Elementai are the only creature strong enough to bear vampire children. That is why they were hunted to extinction and why no vampire has been born in over five hundred years.”

Axl and Xavier stare back at me in confusion, and it is Malachi, almost as curious as Ophelia, who probes further. “So who wiped out the elementai? And why didn’t the vampires stop them?”

“And why are witches taught that vampires were responsible for the genocide?” Ophelia asks, her eyes wide. “Cadence truly believes it was the vampires.”

I sink back against my chair and let out a long breath. “There are four vampire houses. Each of them tolerates the other, but they have never been willing to work together. Over a thousand years ago, three of the houses joined together under the guidance of my father, and vampires began to conquer territories and spaces that other species could only dream of. We infiltrated every organization, every government, every kingdom of any worth. But with the elementai eternally at our sides, the balance of our power was kept in check. Despite this, the witches, wolves, and demons grew more afraid as the centuries passed, and slowly, they began to plot our demise.” A fresh wave of despair washes over me, threatening to drown me. But once again, I find Ophelia’s bright-blue eyes fixed on mine, and the memory of her taste and her blood in my veins is enough to spur me on.

“In addition, there was a growing faction of bloodborne vampires, mostly from House Chó_ma, who were unhappy withthe new status quo and the power that House Drakos wielded with the support of Thalassa and Elira. That, along with a growing resentment within the sired vampire community of feeling powerless and being beholden to a master, was the perfect recipe for mutiny.” I avoid Ophelia’s gaze now. She is no doubt thinking of Lucian at this very moment, and I am beyond grateful to her for not mentioning his name. I have yet to discover exactly how much she learned of my son and his part in the elementai genocide, but that is a conversation we will need to have soon.

“That group of vampires, along with armies of witches, wolves, and demons banded together and targeted us at our weakest point—our eternal devotion to and our species’ reliance on the elementai. We were not enough to stop them.”

A tear rolls down my cheek, and I brush it away quickly, wishing they had not witnessed such an overt display of emotion from me. But the sting of that betrayal has not lessened during the last five centuries. In fact, the sting of my son’s betrayal has only grown.

“And you lost your family,” Axl says, his voice cracking with emotion.

I nod, still avoiding Ophelia’s gaze.

“Elena, Alyria, and Imogen?” Malachi adds.

To hear their names spoken aloud after so long… It brings me both pain and comfort. To my relief, Ophelia continues to keep my son’s name to herself. I am not ready to open that wound so freely.

“Your wife and daughters were all elementai?” Malachi asks.

“That is correct. Vampire and elementai are the feminine and the masculine in balance. Those who committed such atrocious acts were eventually dealt with, but the damage had already been done. And I truly believe that those who were responsiblehad no idea of the destruction they would cause, not only to elementai and vampires, but to all magical species.”

Malachi’s green eyes narrow. “All of them?”

“The elementai were the balance in this world. You cannot simply exterminate an entire species and expect there to be no consequences. Whilst there have been no vampires born, there have also been fewer witches, wolves, and demons. Each species is in decline. The power of the elementai is unmatched, and without their magic to splinter through the bloodlines of every species, then each of them will suffer… and ultimately end.”

“Surely not vampires though. Seeing as we don’tneedto procreate to recreate.” Malachi silently implores me to confirm his statement.

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